When multiple video programs are transmitted over a single channel, the channel bandwidth can be used more efficiently by implementing a joint rate controller to allocate bits among the programs, instead of performing rate control independently for each program. With joint rate control, bits are allocated so that the total bitrate over all the programs meets the channel bandwidth limitations. Normally, there is very little restriction on how bits are distributed within a group of pictures (GOP), but this is not the case if there is a low delay constraint. To achieve low delay, both the total number of bits for a GOP and the distribution of those bits across the GOP must be constrained.